RATIONAL ROADING.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 9, Issue 546, 6 July 1920, Page 2

RATIONAL ROADING.

Several months ago, when the controversy, concrete versus various forms of tar and bitumen roads was raging, with especial reference to the Manukau County Council's loan proposals, we took up a definite stand against the policy favouring the construction of concrete roads, except in special places where traffic was extraordinarily heavy and continuous. After hearing some of the expert evidence put before the Royal Commission now sitting, our previous opinions on this subject are strengthened. It is apparent that Mr. Bush, engineer for Auckland City, is either from conviction or motives of policy,, a staunch champion of concrete roads. Spontaneously he supplied the Commission with information, in oral and literary form, in favour of concrete, but evidence in favour of any other material had to be "dragged" out of him. And-yet,Mr. Morton, Wellington City engineer, who travelled abroad and saw precisely the same things as Mr. Bush saw, and came back at the same time, is by no means wedded to the concrete roading idea. It is possible that the wealth of propaganda that has been flooded over this Dominion during the past few years by the great cement companies has biassed some people's minds in favour of that material, regardless of cost. Seeing that there is such a shortage of cement for bridge work, buildings, and foundations for dairy sheds, the use of concrete for roading purposes seems to the lay mind to be a quite unwarrantable e>:tra\ag;mee. When we come dovvn to a practicable basis we find that for all ordinary purposes or a tar-sealed road, with r good bitumen surface where it ftttf? through centres of populations! makes a good enough road to m i *ek,'-;':ll*-a'emand.s. It is cohesive, wears well, is waterproof, and the sorfaco can be renewed at a moderate cost. Given a road of this description it will last indefinitely, provided that the very important factor of annual maintenance is not neglected, this paper has been a consistent champion of good roads, and we good roads can be provider at a reasonable cost, but our public men must not be led astray by the well-meaning but misleading proposals of men who have made a fad of any particular class of load, be it metal, tar combination, bitumen, or any other substance. The ultimate tests must be by the costs the nature of the country to be loaded, and the class and volume of traffic to be carried, and these factors vary very considerably.